Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has denied that the government plans to increase the gasoline prices in the coming year.

“The government does not have any plan on the liberalization of the pricing of gasoline,” Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

He further spoke about air pollution in Tehran and denied that the gasoline distributed by the Oil Ministry has worsened the situation in the capital city.

Saying that there are various factors for causing air pollution in Tehran, he added that gasoline is not the only factor.

According to him technical defects in vehicles and motorcycles are among the main reasons for realizing emissions and polluting air in Tehran.

For several times over the past few weeks schools in Tehran were closed due to concerns over air pollution. Air pollution is rampant in the large city, especially in cold days with still air.

While the city can normally accommodate one million vehicles, currently there are over four million.

Bad emission rating is only one side of the problem, as the city also suffers from various nearby industrial units polluting the air. Iran suffers high energy intensity in all domestic and industrial sectors.

More than 15 million vehicles are on the country’s roads and according to Zanganeh, Iranians burn nearly 70 million liters of gasoline a day, of which five million liters is imported.

Fuel prices in Iran are among the cheapest in the world even after the government cancelled offering oil products at subsidized prices in May.

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